May 8, 2016

That was in answer to a question from Jake Tapper, just now, on his Sunday show, about what she thought of Paul Ryan's statement — after saying he would support the GOP nominee — that he was not yet ready to support Donald Trump.

She continued: "His political career is over, because he has so disrespected the will of the people. As the leader of the GOP — the convention, certainly — he is to remain neutral and for him to already come out and say who he will not support was not a wise decision of his."

To be clear, Ryan's statement was: "I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now." Is it fair to paraphrase that as saying "who he will not support"? The inaccurate word is "will." If she'd said "who he does not support," she'd be fine.

But "about to be Cantored" is the memorable language. Very harsh. Maybe you also jumped at "His political career is over." What happened to her political career?

Paul Ryan is Speaker of the House, and he effectively came out against his party's presumptive (and presumptuous, if you wish) nominee when there was no need for him to do that. An awful slip that will be remembered for a long time.

I have sympathy for Ryan because I am not there yet also. I have to see what Trump will be like as the GOP party candidate. I don't think an increase in the federal minimum wage is a good idea in a time of wobbly employment. Trump used to agree with me (until last week). Free trade in general makes America better off. Trump doesn't agree with me. I am against illegal immigration. Trump appears to be against all immigration. Trump appears to approve of caudillo government as much as the man in the White House today. I defended Palin when she was the VP candidate. I am startled by her condemnation of Ryan, who is trying to keep things together in the GOP. Politics is about addition, not subtraction. The Dems have settled on identity politics. The GOP needs to move forward with a program that will provide the benefits of economic prosperity and individual freedom to all Americans who are willing to put forth some effort and exercise some self-discipline. Ryan is closer to that target than Trump.

A part of the established Republican Party apparently eants to run as a third party in the upcoming election.How do they propose to distinguish themselves on the ballot from the Republican Party that elected Donald Trump its nominee? As "The Republican Party That Was"?

It's a negotiation. Paul Ryan tried to leverage his support or lack thereof publically. Trump and Palin have lowered the expectation he has for the effectiveness of that position - in fact, he's turned Ryan's withholding of support into a career limited move, drawing a parallel between Ryan's stance and a failed GOP leader who didnt to listen to the people with Cantor. They're reminding Ryan that THE PEOPLE really liked removing Cantor and Boehner and he might be next if we encourage our supporters to get behind it. It will be interesting to see how Ryan responds. Does he escalate or deescalate? What's his leverage? Well, he has a widely unpopular Congress that he can't quite control. And he has a brand that's probably less popular today than it was when he was selected as Romney's running mate. He could choose to directly challenge Trump's nomination at the convention but it would destroy the party. Or he can quietly remove the heat from Hillary Congress is attempting to apply and let her come to the general election as a fully operational battlestation. I don't think any of those are winning choices for Ryan. Ultimately, I think he does what Trump and Palin want him to do - shut up and color like a good child.

See the thing that the GOP Establishment still can't accept, is that if they had shown an ounce of backbone, and fought back against the Democrats instead of providing excuses and rolling over....Trump wouldn't exist.

You didn't get the hint when the Tea Party was formed.

You didn't get the hint when Cantor was defeated.

You didn't get the hint when Boehner was forced to step down.

Ryan becomes Speaker, and the first thing he does is pass a Democratic CR......and the Trump candidacy was born.....

If this was truly a reaction to "the Republicans rolled over" then Ted Cruz would now be the party's nominee. He is the one who tried to get the party to declare all out war against President Obama. Cruz was the candidate that the Republican establishment hates.

The rise of Trump is instead the result of decades of dog whistle politics being used by the Republican Party which has created a mass army of rabid unthinking voters who respond in a Pavlovian way to the loudest whistle. Trump has by far the biggest whistle.

That's what happens when the speaker of the house doesn't really care much for his job and took it reluctantly. He can be honest without fear that his political life is at stake. God forbid he say what he really believes. An unpardonable sin.

And then there is Palin, whom I'm not sure even exists when she is not in front of the camera.

I noted before that Once... and his kind were used to speaking of the "hillbillies" as bees, or ants - Now he refers to their "hive".Maybe Althouse can explain such a mindset, out of her experience in the university. That's probably where it comes from.

Illegal immigration is a big part of it but Muslim immigration and excessive use of H1B visas, including forcing the American IT professional to train his/her replacement as the price of severance pay, is another part.

No mention of ALL immigration that I've heard.

Also, there is some discussion of the possibility of Trump winning Michigan as a way tp shake up the electoral map. In 2008 Palin and Her husband wanted to go to Michigan and campaign where they were popular.

They were not allowed to do this by the GOPe staff of McCain's campaign.

You'd think that if Trump were merely half as bad as once written suggests, then the left would be ecstatic! Seems very strange the amount of fear and loathing from their side these days. They're scared to death -- they know he will steamroll them and their criminal granny.

I'll bet that Hillary misses the halcyon days of her "Granny goes West" tour! Hahaha!

I think people need to remember which way the wind blew when the Republicans fought back with the events leading up to the government shutdown in 2013.

Ted Cruz (who has just been relegated to the trash heap--so much for being a fighter) led an effort in the Senate and House to delay the implementation of Obamacare. The federal government closed down some operations (at no cost to federal workers, who effectively got paid vacation). Polling showed that 81% of Americans disapproved of the shutdown. The matter was resolved with a continuing resolution, and Obamacare was launched in a fiasco, which led to the GOP taking control of the Senate in the 2014 elections.

The problem here is the Madisonian system, which makes it very hard to change things in the federal government. You need what the Dems had from January 20, 2009 until Ted Kennedy died-60 senators, a large majority in the House, and the Oval Office. I am sorry, but the GOP blew it in 2012 when they failed to elect a president. As long as the partries are so at odds, not much is going to change until someone once again gets the three-legged stool- super-majority in the Senate, majority in the House, and the presidency.

One of the things that is so unnerving about Trump is that he has the potential to give those things back to the Dems. The GOP is going to need every congressional and Senate win they can muster to keep Hillary and company from doing even more damage to our country.

Hitchens could be a tremendous snob, and he spent most of his life at least pretending to be a Marxist.And much, if not most, of what he said was for effect, and not out of conviction. Much as so many suspect of Trump. So take ALL of Hitchens with a bit of skepticism.

This is simply silly on Palin's part-- just political posturing. The amount of support Trump gets will depend on each congressman's district.After the ridiculous statement Trump made about US debt, and a potential haircut, it's making it hard to muster up any enthusiasm for the man, even with the knowledge that a leftist Supreme Court will assume even more power-- or should I say become a greater force for the socialist/humanist left.

You losers have really earned being labeled as brain dead hillbillies.

Has Trump ever positioned himself as being anti-tax? as anti government healthcare? as pro family values? Or, even being a rock solid conservative?

But he is your guy. You salivate when he in the most clownish way sticks his butt in the face of "The Establishment" and when he beats up on Hispanics and Muslims.

That is what makes you hillbillies. Not your education level. Not your annual income. But instead, it is your need to be fed red meat by the likes of obvious charlatans like Sarah Palin and Donny Trump.

Hitchens was a great rhetorician, but he had completely erratic political views, which could change at the drop of a hat. And he was completely unapologetic about rocket-propelled grenades that he had launched before he realized he had been wrong and turned 180 degrees. He was great to have on your side as long as he was on your side--which was subject to change without notice.

2000 election was a tie and Bush got the benefit of the doubt. Bush squandered that opportunity willingly by starting a bogus war and 8 years of that brought a tie in the Democratic primary and a little known with scant experience lefty stooge got elected when it should have been the centrist Hillary. The loony leftwingers emboldened by their chicanery but nonplussed at the disastrous reign of their lord Obama are again making mischief with Bernie wounding the Democratic front runner. The fringes of both parties after getting their share of the pie don't want to be pushed off the gravy train and they don't want either of their front runners who are centrists to win. Hillary's prime time was 2008 but was stolen. She had centrist policies to fix things that were better than Obama's then. Now she is running a confused, muddled campaign fighting a lefty loon decoy in Bernie. What I do not understand is why she shot herself in the foot with the email server business, (well, I understand she did it to escape the sabotage from the WH she feared but she shouldn't have done it). There must be serious blackmailing going on from both sides, H and O. Bernie is just a bit of slow knife digs if she strays of the path and start winning for the people, as in if she were to talk about smart centrist policies that would be better than Obama's or starts highlighting everything that was wrong with his policies and his administration. Majority of the country is right smack in the middle and this time they have had enough of the last 16 years.

By waffling on the minimum wage, refusing to vow to reform entitlements, etc Trump is shrewdly and cleverly reducing the number of political cudgels that the Dems/ Hillary can use to pound him in the general election. It is a brilliant strategy really.

Liberal comedic hero Louis C.K displaying typical Liberal sexist, hateful, threatening, tolerance-(on Palin's down syndrome baby):“When she was standing on that stage at the f*cking convention holding a baby that just came out of her f*cking, disgusting c*nt… her f*cking retard-making c*nt. I hate her more than anybody…”

Paul Ryan has been in the Imperial City for what 20-25 years since he got out of college. He has no new ideas because he only sees govt solutions. So his career is toast; maybe not this election but one day sooner rather than later.

And, not being a supporter of Trump, myself, speaking merely as a general observer, one clear lesson of politics is that one must consider the extremely dubious nature of political claims, of "positions". That whole business is itself part of political marketing, no less so than slogans, colors and music. It is ultimately meaningless, this should be clear to anyone with experience. Once...Again I ask for your credentials.

My first intuitive reaction was the same as Palin's. I'm not even sure why. I have somewhat tuned out of politics at the moment, because I cannot bear the pain of Hillary Clinton's impending nomination.

The country needs at least two functional parties. Does it have even one right now?

I think Sarah Palin is about to be Landoned -- as in Alf Landon. A one-term Republican gogvernor, catapulted into a one-time national presidential race, and slaughtered in the process. A former real candidate who subsequently became a perpetual joke candidate and the butt of late night humor for two generations.

I don't get what Republican leaders don't get about the fall of Eric Cantor. By all accounts he was a well-liked Congressman with no personal scandals. He had plenty of name recognition and good staff. He was on the wrong side of the immigration issue; that's it.

But wait! There's more! Marco Rubio was on the wrong side of immigration as part of "The Gang of Eight" and he couldn't even win his state in the presidential primaries (at least Kasich and Cruz won their states).

Paul Ryan, John Boehner, and George W. Bush's brother need to pull their heads out if their butts and get with the program.

Ryan's political career is over. At least he can look back warmly on the big deficits and government programs he voted for during the W years. And while he works on K street he can be the resident go to big government republican on the political talk shows. Give the people the take from the big government conservative perspective.

US debt is unsustainable long term without a return to a considerably higher level of growth. This isn't just money owed but also promised benefits, both public and private. We know all about public pension problems, but the same is true of a lot of private ones, which are also unsustainable, often grossly so, given current returns. Recovery, to me, seems unlikely unless some very large reforms are made. Ryan and his like don't seem likely to do this even if, unlikely as it seems, they ever obtain the power to do so. Their culture and nature seems to project perpetual weakness. Clinton of course is merely the figurehead of the system that perpetuates the current paralysis. So you Americans really have no choice but to do something radical.

As house majority leader, it is an abdication of his responsibilities that he is undecided in whether he will support his own party's nominee. It does not matter that he ultimately will support Trump, that he considered not supporting Trump is problem enough.

Once written, twice... said...Palin is the queen bee of the hillbilly hive. It was politically craven of John McCain to pick that dingbat as his running mate. Now it looks like McCain is going to be Cantoried in Arizona

Palin is a true representative of her people, with all of their virtues and faults. I know a huge number like her, men, women, young and old. It is people much like her, very many with her problems, that truly, actually have control of the switches of our lives, that sit in the control rooms and climb up on transmission towers, who lay pipe and plant crops.

That was Palin's family pre-politics, oil workers and fishermen. Most of you really have no idea on whom your physical survival depends - I can tell you - it depends on a lot of Palin's.

I have tremendous admiration for these people. They are incredibly productive workers, they have an instinct to initiative and self organization you can't teach. They arent so awed by hierarchy or social position as to suppress their own judgement, and their practical nature leads to solutions quickly being negotiated between networks of peers. Do you understand how rare that is in the world? Your country is great because of them, not because of people who went to college. Every other country has hordes who have gone to college, but not many Palin's.

Most of the hate I have heard for Palin really is, at core, an expression of disgust for her kind. Knowing what I know, I was left bewildered.

Buwaya--I'll up you--the shortfall for off the books future US federal benefits for social security, medicare and medicaid is $72 trillion. This is in addition to the $18 trillion of debt on the books. This is not a sustainable burden. All the talk about the on the books liabilities of $18 trillion (which almost doubled under Obama) is really just fighting over the deck chairs on the Titantic. Somewhere down the road, there is a crash coming. The midgets that currently inhabit the political stage are doing nothing to mitigate or prepare people for what is coming: inflation-up! social security payments-reduced for some, eliminated for others! medicare-reduced for most, eliminated for some! taxes-up for everyone, rich and poor alike! Paul Ryan put forward a plan to begin to address some of this, and the Dems put out an ad showing him pushing a lady in a wheelchair over a cliff. Ryan and his like are not the problem. We are the problem.

Most of the hate I have heard for Palin really is, at core, an expression of disgust for her kind. Knowing what I know, I was left bewildered.

I'm a long-time Palin fan. All of this hatred is nothing new. What's dismaying is to have watched other long-time Palin admirers turn on her right after her endorsement of Donald Trump. It is they who have changed, not she.

Donate $19.99 today to the GOP and you'll get: Not one, not two, but three unfulfilled campaign promises. Act quickly. The first 1000 donors will also receive an illegal immigrant family in the house next door featuring an active felon whose true identity and location is unknown to the authorities.

Once written--you really should look into Biden's background. His father was a successful sales rep who played polo. His drinking did him in. Joe has a schtick, but he is solidly from the upper middle class.

I have seen them in action, and I am a man of experience. There's a good reason why no other country has managed to make a go of fracking, just as an example, and it has nothing to do with lacking trained engineers or investment capital.

Quite telling that Chuck considers the opinions of left-wing late night hosts on Palin to be valid. Not very surprising though, I must say.

Someone is still whining about 'free trade'? Saying those two words in a positive manner when our industry is being ripped off from us by China is ludicrous. We do not have free trade.

All you 'conservatives' want is for our American Companies to be International companies, that aren't bound to the US, and can leave anytime they want for greener pastures.

This increases GDP, we are told. You can stuff your GDP. We need jobs. We need industry as a matter of national security. You free trade zealots realize that if war did break out, we would need to make things HERE?

Amadeus -Ryan is part of the problem - he is weak. Understanding the problem and half-heartedly attempting a solution is no use at all. Such a man is no more a player than we groundlings.It's like being Louis XVI's finance minister Jacques Necker - or Ferdinand Marcos' Secretary of Finance Cesar Virata, whom I met, and I knew his friends. They too understood the problems but were incapable of solving them.

"Michael K--You are right about all immigration--but what about free trade, the minimum wage and caudillo government? He has a way to go to get my vote."

I am certainly no spokesman for Trump.

The minimum wage is an odd issue. It makes no sense in economics as it just hurts the poor and unskilled. There is an argument (that we have had over at Chicagoboyz) that it will dry up the illegal immigration jobs. It is mostly pushed by unions which see it as an escalator.

Free trade ? I am no expert on the subject but China has used predatory practices, such as encouraging technology espionage and requiring companies like Boeing to build factories there as the price of contracts.

TCom said...Quite telling that Chuck considers the opinions of left-wing late night hosts on Palin to be valid. Not very surprising though, I must say.

I never said anything about "opinions" being "valid." I have consistently derided all of the fans of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert; both of whom I never thought were particularly funny.

I probably should not have mentioned "late night comedy" at all, to be honest. Because we now live in a world, and with a generation, which associates late night humor with left-wing punditry. Jon Stewart; Stephen Colbert; Conan O'Brien; David Letterman. Every night on Comedy Channel, which ought to be regulated as a wing of the Democratic Party.

I was thinking of the fact that through the 1960's, 70's and 80's... until his death in 1987 at age 100, Alf Landon was the icon for American failed candidacies.

But at least you were reliable, in attacking me and promoting the kinds of Smoot-Hawley tariff theories that wrecked global economies in Alf Landon's time.

Gahrie said...40% of all births today are to unwed women....3 out of 4 in the Black community...but the only woman who ever catches shit for it is Bristol Palin.--Maybe because she positioned herself as an abstinence advocate. On the plus side, sounds like she's mainstream.

That was a very different time. World War I destroyed Europe and the American farmers had had a booming export market until the European recovery began about 1920. Coolidge (who I have studied) was faced every year with a bill by farm interests to raise farm prices. It finally became law under Roosevelt.

Coolidge, typically, had a droll comment. “At every cabinet meeting for a year or so back, Secretary Henry Wallace used to be grumbling about the price of corn and was always wanting the government to do something about it. Then corn took a rise. The government didn’t do it. I noticed that Wallace had shut up about the price of corn.”

The tariff was GOP policy all along.

The high tariffs were a major barrier to repayment of these debts as Europeans could not sell enough to the US to balance trade. The US accumulated massive gold reserves in the 20s and the central bankers tried to avoid a situation where the US had all the gold in the world. This led to very low interest rates and an aggressive policy of loaning money to countries with questionable credit ratings, especially in Latin America. The low interest rates led to a bubble and, after 1928, the collapse was inevitable. JP Morgan and other Wall Street banks supported lowered tariffs and free trade, at least in a relative sense. Coolidge’s greatest mistake was in continuing those tariff rates but that was Republican policy. The tariff was bringing in money that would retire the national debt. Only later was the folly seen in high tariffs.

The loans in the 1920s were almost a precursor of the CRA policies in the 90s.

Chuck, I urge you to consider the matter of Palin as what it is, class war. Looking on it from San Francisco, from friends with $1M houses, the source of the disdain, the audience for the late night hosts. I'm one of those with a $1M house, but I make my living in actual industry, so I know better.

buwaya: I have tremendous admiration for these people. They are incredibly productive workers, they have an instinct to initiative and self organization you can't teach. They arent so awed by hierarchy or social position as to suppress their own judgement, and their practical nature leads to solutions quickly being negotiated between networks of peers. Do you understand how rare that is in the world? Your country is great because of them... [my emphasis]

My husband and I were having a conservation on this very topic earlier this morning, though it had nothing to do with Palin. It started in the context of his comments on management problems - how often middle- and upper- management simply had no idea how shit gets done, as he put it, and who gets it done. They think smooth functioning is the default, instead of being the product of the self-motivating, self-organizing, responsible workers, who just bloody do what needs to be done, no muss, no fuss, no meetings, no directives, etc.

I also recall in my youth how often visiting foreigners, or my foreign professors, noted with admiration this traditional American characteristic. (One teacher, Eastern European, assured me that the U.S. could never fall into the sorry, malfunctioning state of his own region, because of our high local level of, yes, personal initiative and local self-organization.) I also recall, working overseas, that this characteristically American "can do" approach could either impress or exasperate (and sometimes terrify) foreign colleagues.

But that was all a long time ago. I see a lot of this "default" attitude about having a functioning society among my own countrymen these days, no longer having any idea of how it's created and maintained, and by whom, and not recognizing that it's starting to erode - because they think it's just there, like the air. (True, this is in the nature of all civilizations.)

I admit I have bloody-minded fantasies about some of these heedless people learning the hard way the truth about, say, taken-for-granted access to potable tap water, but hey, that's my tap water, too...

True; the targeted prosecutions were a conspiracy to drive her out, centrally organized and funded. This went a long way to turn me to conspiracy theories, which I'd thought I'd left behind on the other side of the Pacific.

The Ribbon Guy beat me to it but I just donated $100 to Paul Nehlen. I had not realized that Ryan was facing a primary. Screw him. He needs to be gotten rid of.

One of the few times I've donated to any political campaign was in 1994 to George Nethercutt, a somewhat liberal (libertarian) Republican from Spokane. He was able to defeat the odious Tom Foley, then speaker of the House. I like to think my $200 or so helped.

Nehlen's campaign site is http://www.paulnehlen.com/ if you want to know something about him. I don't really care, myself. All I care about is that he is primarying Ryan. If he wins, he will be just another powerless freshman rep. Too bad we can't have 435 of those.

Angelyne, You are correct, in part, that much of this is being lost. Some due to the culture of sloth, some to miseducation, some to the failure of morals - Palin and her family are a scale model of the whole thing, yes? But modern management practice actively tries to suppress the "getting shit done" instinct. Much of this is sold as "compliance" with various regulations, and for the sake of cost reduction, but truly it is very much class - based distrust and a centralization of power. The process of all this is happening at the smallest scale in the private sector as on a gross level in the Federal bureaucracies.

And what is it with Trump and alcohol. His brother was an alcoholic and consequently Trump has never had a drink in his life. I can understand. But then he goes and buys a winery?? And, he doesn't ever taste the wine (which I understand is of very high quality)?

If your father died of lung cancer from smoking, would you invest in a cigarette company? Very odd.

Has Trump ever positioned himself as being anti-tax? as anti government healthcare? as pro family values? Or, even being a rock solid conservative?

But he is your guy. You salivate when he in the most clownish way sticks his butt in the face of "The Establishment" and when he beats up on Hispanics and Muslims.

That is what makes you hillbillies. Not your education level. Not your annual income. But instead, it is your need to be fed red meat by the likes of obvious charlatans like Sarah Palin and Donny Trump

A racist explains his racim. " Theys white niggers too." Who ya votin for there einstein? The charlatan Hillary or the charlatan 'only virgin in the whorehouse' Sanders?Might want to bring a better game next time.

in the 80s and 90s I used to represent a company that made bottle fillers. At the time primarily for dairy but they worked well on other products.

I had a client that would bring in Chilean wine concentrate in 55 gallon drums, thaw it, mix it with water and bottle it. I don't drink but had been told that it was not bad.

They wanted to buy a filler from me and this would have been ideal. When I sent in the details asking for a proposal, the president of the company refused to quote. Not on any basis of appropriateness but he would not allow his machines to be used for alcohol.

I believe it had to do with his father being an alcoholic.

Great company, great machines, just that one little quirk.

So some will go that way. Others, like me, figure that it is a free country and if someone wants to make wine, I am happy to have them as a client.

I also tried to sell machinery to cigarette plants. RJR in PR, a Dominican producer in the DR. Never did sell anything but I did try. Again, you want to smoke, it is stupid but it is up to you, not me.

I think the wine at Cana would have been something more Greek, perhaps like a Rhodian Mandilaria, or, God forbid, if it had to travel, a Retsina. Actually, I think the odds are pretty good that it was some sort of Retsina.

Palin's a fighter. She was the first sign of the present populist revolt in the GOP ... and the Democrat Party too, to a lesser extent. But she couldn't pull it off on her own. Then along came Trump and the revolution was on.

Conservatives need to understand just how much the world has changed. The National Eeview wing, the neocon wing, the commentariat wing have all been clipped. Trump is the new definition of the Republican brand. He is not a one-off. The Paul Ryan's of the world need to understand this very quickly.

I have to admit that I'm not very enthralled with Donald Trump as the Republican presidential candidate, because it seems to me (pace Scott Adams) that Trump doesn't always think before he speaks. If the Democrats had put up anyone even halfway reasonable I might possibly vote for that person or at any rate not vote at all. But the Dumbocrats, bless their pointy little heads, are putting up one of the most corrupt individuals to run for the presidency since the 19th century. The election of Hillary Clinton will usher in the most corrupt administration since Ulysses Grant, with the caveat that Grant was not personally corrupt but foolishly trusted people he should not have trusted. In a Clinton administration, the rot will start from the very top.

pm317 said...a little known with scant experience lefty stooge got elected when it should have been the centrist Hillary.

This misconception seems common. In fact there's no difference between Obama and Clinton policy wise. Her lack of morals and ambition make her more dangerous than Obama, although his ignoring law when inconvenient makes it close. Both believe they can do whatever they want because those who interpret law and write history are on their side.

Whether they are leftist or centrist depends on who you compare them to. Both are utterly conventional within the academia - media bubble, which puts them both far left of the American people.

Shiloh,If you've had to organize and coordinate oh, a dozen or so different teams on a technical job, and have done this in, oh, about five countries, then you would understand.But you haven't. You are ignorant.

"Ryan has made his choice to oppose Trump for being too good at attack politics. Hmmm?"OR too bad as a conservative who doesn't support conservative ideals.Remember how Ryan says Trump needs to get on board the platform? And Trump said, no, you need to get on MY platform? Well what platform is that? Is it the democratic non republican platform that Trump is espousing?

Threats do not bring the party together. If Trump wants reconciliation he has to turn those who are anti Trump into pro Trumpers. And not by threatening them. But, this is a lesson lost on Trump.

So Trump is fighting back? He doesn't really seem to be pushign for republican things, does he? Ryan, by fighting Trump and saying Trump has to get on board the limited govt agenda WOULD be fighting back. Just because Trump is on the outside trying to get in doesn't make him a smaller govt conservative.

"Palin's a fighter. She was the first sign of the present populist revolt in the GOP ... and the Democrat Party too, to a lesser extent. But she couldn't pull it off on her own. Then along came Trump and the revolution was on.

Conservatives need to understand just how much the world has changed. The National Eeview wing, the neocon wing, the commentariat wing have all been clipped. Trump is the new definition of the Republican brand. He is not a one-off. The Paul Ryan's of the world need to understand this very quickly."

She seems less of a fighter for principle and more someone who just wants to throw a wrench in the system. She is going to be supporting Trumps distinctly big govt agenda, and say she's "Fighting against the establishment" Trump IS the establishment. And the Ryan's of the party will end up being the ones fighting for Palins' OLD positions that she had prior to endorsing Trump.I just really dont want to hear her cry, (assuming he wins) when he does half the stuff he says he's going to do which REPUBLICANS have a problem with.

These are the talking points Anne Coulter was using for her script on Bill Maher Friday. Cantor Cantor Cantor. Everyone on the Trump payroll is repeating.

Palin quit her job halfway through, then wouldn't support her party's candidate due to a personal beef so the Democrat won in Alaska and she is going to call people out?

A friend said Guliani is supporting Trump and thought that would influence me because I liked him as mayor. I said Guliani backed Cuomo against Pataki, and handed the Senate seat in NY to Hillary. "Oh," she said. Oh.

By the way Ted Cruz won Ryan's district in the election. Those are actual conservatives. Is Ted Cruz going to come out and support TRump? So, they would seem to support the Paul Ryan's and Ted Cruz's of the party and not the Trump's. (if he even is of the party). So, Palin saying Ryan isn't conservative enough and will be Cantored is a bit short sighted. Cantor was ousted by Republicans, not third party populist democrats. Palin has simply shifted loyalties from Tea Partiers who want limited govt to big govt populists. Maybe she doesnt even realize it, but it is whats' happening.I did say that the Never Trumpers may need to eat a shit sandwhich and support Trump. But I predicated it on the fact that Trump needs to tac a bit to the right. He has to give them a reason to not go Never Trump. And so far, he seems adamant about refusing to do so. So, if that's the bed he wants to lie in, then he will need to lie in it.

So Trump is fighting back? He doesn't really seem to be pushign for republican things, does he? Ryan, by fighting Trump and saying Trump has to get on board the limited govt agenda WOULD be fighting back. Just because Trump is on the outside trying to get in doesn't make him a smaller govt conservative.

People aren't supporting Trump because they believe he is a Conservative, or believes in small government, or even that he is a Republican...they support him because he makes everyone they hate lose their shit.

I hope he is Cantored. He's just another GOPe clone that's on wrong side of the issues. Refuses to push back against Obama, supports Amnesty, Open Borders, and bad trade deals. Bought off by the billionaire donors. Refuses to support the Republican nominee.

Plus, he was a total zero as Romney's VP. Does anyone even remember he was in the 2012 campaign? I had to go fucking google him, just to make sure I wasn't thinking of someone else.

None of us peons voted for Ryan as Romney's VP candidate or as Speaker of the House. The GOPe did that.

BTW, its interesting that some of the same Republicans that were trashing Palin in 208-2012 are trashing Trump. Erick Erickson and the Cucks over at Red state come immediately to mind. Not to mention, David brooks, George Will, and some of the Girly-men over at NRO.

Threats do not bring the party together. If Trump wants reconciliation he has to turn those who are anti Trump into pro Trumpers. And not by threatening them. But, this is a lesson lost on Trump.

Yeah, this is a nice moment. A very good one to remember. Trump and the Trumpettes are perfectly free to say, 'We won by running against the GOPe, and Washington, and by not playing the PC-game...' And they can decide to keep doing that. By all means, Trump; you are free to continue to bash Republicans and reject the Party. Make no concessions, no compromises. Stay "Trump." And above all, say that you don't need the GOP Establishment.

There is absolutely nothing that would satisfy me more than to hear Trump says he doesn't need the GOP.

Because later in the fall, if Trump is defeated in a landslide, he can't then be heard to say that he was betrayed by the GOP establishment. And those are the quotes I want to see video-banked now. All of the Trump quotes declaring that he doesn't need the GOP establishment.

It was interesting hearing Kudlow on the radio last night enthuse for Trump. He had some caveats, but in general is very impressed with him citing his leadership skills, business acumen, etc. I'm seeing a lot of people coming around to the idea that he can win and be a good president. Of course the cucks are a lost cause but they are worthless anyway and need to be culled.

" Because later in the fall, if Trump is defeated in a landslide, he can't then be heard to say that he was betrayed by the GOP establishment. And those are the quotes I want to see video-banked now. All of the Trump quotes declaring that he doesn't need the GOP establishment."

Keep clinging to your hope for a Hillary blowout. It's extremely unlikely but you were certain Trump would never be the nominee either as I recall. The phrase "stuck on stupid" comes to mind.

Ryan seemed to have balls of brass when he stood up against Obama in that big meeting Obama called, early in his reign. Ryan pissed off Obama so much that Obama glared at Ryan through his entire presentation, and did his precious "Ima flip you da bird" thing that the petulant prick does when the occasional pushback happens.

I thought he'd be an awesome VP with Romney. Then, I think he didn't do particularly well against Biden, which doesn't say much for him, since Caribou Barbie definitely took it to him when she had the chance.

Then, when he became Speaker and could have made a difference, the difference he made was to allow the Dem agenda to be fully funded, so that we could live to fight another day, or something...

Paul said......Keep clinging to your hope for a Hillary blowout. It's extremely unlikely but you were certain Trump would never be the nominee either as I recall. The phrase "stuck on stupid" comes to mind.

Where did I say that? Link, please. Quote me. I certainly hoped that Trump would reach peak-Trump and blow out. I didn't want him, and still don't. I hoped, recently, that all of the anti-Trump delegates would have their say at an open convention. IN that context, I suggested that the Trumpkins might just find out how much Republicans like to fight. But I repeatedly declined to make any predictions. And said so.

I'm not even making any predictions now. I think Hillary is a terrible candidate, who any good Republican ought to be able to beat. She might turn into a disastrous nominee for Dems. I don't know. I do know that Trump is a terrible candidate. That's been clear all along. And my best guess (no better than anybody else's guess) is that he'll lose in an electoral landslide.

But no matter what, Trump won't be around forever. And it is Trumpism that I want to kill; kill it with fire.

The problem is Chuck the people are drifting out of your camp into ours. Kudlow is a good example. You "knowing" that Trump is a terrible candidate doesn't make it so. If I were you I'd climb down off the soap box and take more of a wait and see approach to avoid embarrassing yourself in case you're all wrong.

Interesting that people are blaming Ryan for the CR. The CR was basically a done deal when Ryan took the gavel, negotiated by Boehner, Trump's texting buddy. I hated the CR, I fired off angry emails to both my senators and my representative. If you think Trump is the solution to awful budgets like that, your delusion is strong.

I think we should all vote to get trump in even if we think he is a shitty candidate. And how you coudn't think he is a shitty candidate makes me question your sanity. I mean, have you been listening to the guy? He is so uninformed its scary.

However, we should still help get him elected. ESPECIALLY the anti-Trumpers. Because I want the actual Republicans to then act as the opposition party to him whenever he proposes one of cockamamie stupid ideas. And I want to then hear the Trumpbots talk about how the establshment repubs are traitors for not supporting big govt Trump. Even better would be if Trump proposes something and the dems actually vote for it, and the repubs act as the opposition to their own president.Becuase I so want to hold it over the the Trumpbots heads that they forced us to adopt a big govt idiotic DEMOCRAT, and want to then seem them scrounge to defend why they are voting with democrats.I especially want to see Hannity's face when he realizes that he helped elect a Trump who is now getting democratic votes, while repubs sit on their hands. And then have his head explode as he has to defend siding with Democrats. Or come to the realization that him putting his backing behind Trump was the biggest mistake of his life.

I'm voting for Trump as a protest vote. I want to deny Hillary the spot, but then want four years of Trump being forced to piss off all his fan base as he doesnt deliver on what he promised. Or even worse DOES, and they then have to defend why they wanted this in the first place.

I think what buwaya puti said in each of his posts about Palin rings very true. McCain picking her as a VP candidate was brilliant. His use of her on the campaign trail was doubled down stupidity. And he failed to firs his campaign advisers who derided her. Stupid, stupid.

Her coming out for Trump didn't make me pro-Trump, though I'm certain it influenced others. What I'm not certain of is whether she jumped on the Trump bandwagon to success, or helped steer the Trump bandwagon to success. Because she did jump on it before it started steamrolling to success. She saw something that a lot of so called brilliant political prognosticators didn't. And yet people call her dumb... Says something about their judgement, doesn't it?

I'm one of those who'll crawl over broken glass to vote against Monica Lewinski's ex-boyfriend's wife, so Trump will get my vote in November, albeit I'll be holding my nose. Somewhere in my memory I recall his stating that Palin would have a spot in his administration. Secretary of State? Or Supreme Court nominee? Common sense on the Supreme Court; I can foresee people s------g bricks.

"But no matter what, Trump won't be around forever. And it is Trumpism that I want to kill; kill it with fire."

The open borders oligarch wing of the GOP speaks. As if there is a place for you in the republican party anymore. NRO can have it's little cruise every year and do their little fundraising in the DC beltway. Redstate can run on nothing but nobody is going to read it outside of the butthurt crowd.

Paul Ryan is going to grovel. He is going to be made to reject his support for open borders. Watch as they will force him to support border enforcement first. Ryan will be forced to pledge never to pass another omnibus bill for the dem's again. He is going to apologize for being a sellout.

If he doesn't Paul Nehelen is going to be the nominee in that district.

Sarah Palin fought the corrupt GOP/Oil industry alliance in Alaska. The contract she got the people of her state for the oil leases was excellent. She teamed up with Democrats to do it.

Sarah Palin fought for the little people in her state against the oligarchs and their pet republicans.

Fast forward to now. Is it any wonder that Palin jumped on the Trump train early? Particularly after those same Oligarchs funded lawsuit after lawsuit against her in Alaska after 2008 to drive her out of the governorship?

Sarah Palin is a good person and she tried to serve the people of her state and fought for them. It is clear that a lot of people do not like those little people getting uppity.

Sebastian said..."If you think Trump is the solution to awful budgets like that, your delusion is strong." Sorry, Diamondhead, get used to it.

"It would be fun to interview some Trump voters, to find out what they were "thinking," as our resident physician put it, about CRs."

Yeah because we are all fucking idiots right? The problem with your stupid interview is you already "know" we are going to give answers you think are stupid. You would make no attempt to understand our paradigm or learn from us. You just want to make your own little world seem bigger. You wouldn't even listen to my answers because you already know how stupid I am. You are pathetic.

One thing you will learn is that thinking you are smarter than everyone else usually means the opposite. The source for thinking someone is stupid usually starts from your own ignorance. I don't even think Hillary supporters are stupid and there are several groups. Many of them have no soul but they are not stupid.

Another point is we are right fucking here. Interview away. You don't have to put "thinking" in quotes unless it is to describe your own pathetic arrogance. You will learn that I have put a lot more time and thought into this than you because I am making an effort to understand what the various factions are doing. I understand why Paul Ryan thought he had to pass the CR. I understand why the democrats in power push this crap.

Understanding Ryan and the cowardice that permeates DC makes me dislike it very much. Even Cruz said the most important thing that they discuss in DC is re-election and everything they do there is based on getting donations and getting re-elected. Sarah Palin is 1000 times the public servant that Paul Ryan is.

Phil 3:14 said..."Here's what's gets me:Trump belittled and name called candidates favored by some fellow Republicans.

Now he's the nominee and the Trump supports are pissed that we haven't "gotten on board"."

Is there a campaign in the history of fucking ever that both sides didn't belittle and name call? You are just being pathetic. Seriously this whiny crap is lame. What do you want a hug? A back rub? Want me to tell you you are so smart and we really need your amazing brain? The republic will fall without you. Please please please help us win. Your guy lost but well he was swell and probably better than Trump but please vote for Trump.

Grow. Up. Clinton and Oligarchs or Trump and Americans. Or pout in the corner irrelevant for a generation.

"If you think Trump is the solution to awful budgets like that, your delusion is strong."

Trump is not the solution to the Congressional malpractice. The CR is totally in the hands of the House which we have controlled since 2010. The Appropriations Committee could have returned to "regular order" and passed 12 Appropriations bills by 2012. They did n't and Obama out maneuvered Cruz by shutting own even open air national monuments.

"Becuase I so want to hold it over the the Trumpbots heads that they forced us to adopt a big govt idiotic DEMOCRAT, and want to then seem them scrounge to defend why they are voting with democrats."

What are you going to do if you are wrong ?

"One thing you will learn is that thinking you are smarter than everyone else usually means the opposite. "

It might just mean you are wrong but it is odd to see the #NeverTrump types looking just like lefties as they claim superior intelligence over people with multiple degrees and successful careers.

Achilles to Phil 3:14:"Here's what's gets me:Trump belittled and name called candidates favored by some fellow Republicans.

Now he's the nominee and the Trump supports are pissed that we haven't 'gotten on board'."

Is there a campaign in the history of fucking ever that both sides didn't belittle and name call? You are just being pathetic. Seriously this whiny crap is lame. What do you want a hug? A back rub? Want me to tell you you are so smart and we really need your amazing brain?

Another demonstration of how feminized political culture has become. Somewhere in the reminiscences of Winston Churchill's mother, she describes how uncomprehending she was of parliamentary political culture, when she was first exposed to it as the young wife of an MP, Churchill's father. Observing parliamentary debate, she recalls how dismayed she was as the way the men went at each other, hammer and tongs. And how shocked and confused she was, later, at subsequent social events, at how amiably these (to her eyes) mortal enemies got along. Being an intelligent woman, she figured it out pretty quickly, alien though it was to her feminine upbringing (because she wasn't a candy-ass by nature).

Historically, presidential races were not at all the Marquess of Queensberry matches "conservatives" seem to think they were. It's a fight. It's a fucking fight. And fights are OK. Especially when your real enemies don't play fair, don't respect a culture of disinterested debate, have no compunction whatever about dousing you with gasoline, tossing the match, and then blaming you for their violence...

(Or, as my husband just mumbled in response to this observation: "Second-order pussy". A Candidate B supporter getting upset about what Candidate A said about about Candidate B, not even the supporter personally (which would be bad enough), is "being a 2nd order pussy".)

@Achilles, either you're going to learn how to be nice to the people who know how to do the hard work of identifying your guy's voters and who actually do the work, or you're going to have to learn what to do for GOTV and actually take days off work to do it.

If anyone wants to check on the practical effect of the state of the economy, of the failure to grow in recent years, it's not difficult if you are vested in a pension fund.All pension funds have to report annually on their state of funding - that is whether they have sufficient assets to meet their obligations. The state of US Fortune 500 pension plans under this assumption is that they are, on average, about 82% funded, depending on the survey. That's not good. Pretty disastrous actually. The critical matter for funding such a plan depends mainly on the projection for return on assets.So check your pension fund statement, that's your stake in this.

Big Mike said..."@Achilles, either you're going to learn how to be nice to the people who know how to do the hard work of identifying your guy's voters and who actually do the work, or you're going to have to learn what to do for GOTV and actually take days off work to do it.

Or your guy loses.

(It has not escaped my notice that doing both would be useful.)"

So it is time for the Psych interview for the RSTA unit. I walk in and there is a psychologist reading the results of the 1000ish question survey I took. As I am sitting down the first thing out of his mouth: "Well... looks like you maxed out the introvert scale." The second statement was even better.

I don't like people. I really don't like whiners. I understand this is a weakness and I really do try. But sometimes I don't and a lot of the time letting people off the hook would just be enabling.

I understand how necessary a lot of what you people do is. There are people who are good at people. We all have our jobs to do. But I am a bit tired of the whining and moaning going on around here. I understand it is going to take a few weeks and I may just take some time off. Though you might be surprised at some of the networking going on out here in the sticks between all of us hillbillies.

On the other hand the difference between Trump and Hillary on the 2nd amendment alone should be enough motivation for any true conservative. A lot of people are forgetting the things that are really important.

sinz52 said..."It's always the responsibility of the nominee (Trump in this case) to reach out to disappointed party members and begin the healing process.

No nominee should ever expect the entire party to come crawling to him."

You are under the delusion that we want the entire party. You see we are not particularly enamored with the open borders oligarch pet wing. Mitt Romney accomplished what exactly? Oh he passed Obamacare before Obama did. What did George W. do with the first republican majority in the legislative and the executive? Yay Medicare Part D! Republicans gave us the EPA, Department of Education, no child left behind.

We don't want the oligarch pets in the party. We need the small government conservatives though.

Louis CK btw did apologize to her, at some function for being a total jackalope, For most of the last year, the huntress has been silent, she didn't do CPAC, as in previous years, she's done a rally or two. she doesn't seem her self as indispensable, in fact she cited the aphorism 'don't put your faith in any one of them, because they will inevitably dissapoint,'

buwaya puti: The state of US Fortune 500 pension plans under this assumption is that they are, on average, about 82% funded, depending on the survey. That's not good. Pretty disastrous actually. The critical matter for funding such a plan depends mainly on the projection for return on assets.

Are the projections for those funds (for return on assets) based on anything within shouting distance of reality? We "roll our own", so I don't keep track of what's going on in the "defined benefit" side of things, but I do recall wondering what some of the producers of those projections were smoking.

@Achilles, I am a retired mathematician with a tendency towards Aspergers. One can learn how to deal with real people, if one really wants to. Worked for me. I won't say it's easy, just that it's pretty important (unless you're a zookeeper and deal exclusively with non-primate species). As I've said, I intend to work for Barbara Comstock's reelection. If anyone else running for office in Virginia wants my support they can stop trying to do a victory dance on my head.

Big Mike: If anyone else running for office in Virginia wants my support they can stop trying to do a victory dance on my head.

That's perfectly understandable, Big M. But it's also understandable that right now the lads are feeling their oats, considering how everything has turned out in the face of all the expert prognostication.

Things will settle down, for good or ill. (Not too worried about the support of people who use a phrase like "healing process" with a straight face, though. Purge those peckerwood SOBs, the useless bastards.)

Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings, his late wife's half-sister, was first publicly disclosed by a man named Callender; a Jefferson operative whom Jefferson refused to pay off to the man's satisfaction.

jr565 wrote:Because I want the actual Republicans to then act as the opposition party to him whenever he proposes one of cockamamie stupid ideas. And I want to then hear the Trumpbots talk about how the establshment repubs are traitors for not supporting big govt Trump. Even better would be if Trump proposes something and the dems actually vote for it, and the repubs act as the opposition to their own president.If the Republicans in congress won't make a deal with Trump, Pelosi and Schumer will be happy to do so.

Phil 3:14"Here's what's gets me:Trump belittled and name called candidates favored by some fellow Republicans."John McCain spent the bulk of his pre-nominating years blasting and belittling republicans and base voters on lefty shows.

We were told to support him anyway.

We did.

Now those of us who werent Trump supporters in the primary but are in the #NeverHillary camp (sorry "lifelong republican" Chuck) are being told by those ideological stepsisters that they are staying home.

Well, Hillary thanks you.

It's amusing how all these normally repub voters keep deluding themselves that their refusal to vote "R" or for Hillary is some sort of neutral act.

yes, and john weaver was the one who told the times the libelous story about maverick and the lobbyist, didn't make it true, and didn't prevent him from being hired by another two campaigns, huntsman and kasich.

In "The President, Again," published on September 1, 1802, in the Recorder; or, Lady's and Gentleman's Miscellany, a Federalist newspaper in Richmond, James Thomson Callender turns on his former patron, accusing U.S. president Thomas Jefferson of having fathered children with a slave named Sally

Gotta love the "we don't need you GOP establishment loser weaklings, but if you don't join up with us it's your fault our guy loses!" coming from some Trumpers. A lot of the same people who hate the establishment because it doesn't have the stomach to "fight" the Democrats while at the same time they lionize a half term governor who quit not just her governorship but everything else she's done since then. Not a lot of consistency in Trump World.

The race has been decided. It'd be best for all to stop the name-calling and vitriol. The thing Trump's haters found most frustrating and failed to see about him is that he is nonideological. Haters called him a "liberal Democrat," which is funny, because he was never that. He was never anything, politically. He doesn't look at the world that way. Trump doesn't theorize about things, he does things. He's a project manager. If you want to know what Trump believes and what he is going to do, don't try to analyze his ideology, because you won't understand it. Instead, listen to the promises he makes throughout this campaign, because those are the things, as project manager, he's planning on delivering. And once most people start listening honestly, with an open ear, they like what they hear.

@Brando: "Not a lot of consistency in Trump World. Going to be a fun campaign." Get used to it (I guess you are). And yes, it will be. In fact, the fun has started. See, for illustration, the comments right on this blog by an unusually touchy Trumpkin oddly misnamed "Achilles." Conservatives might as well get some entertainment value out of this, observing from the sidelines. Including the entertainment in seeing the Donald go after Hillary! Bring on the Dem-on-Dem mudslinging.

Drago said"It's amusing how all these normally repub voters keep deluding themselves that their refusal to vote "R" or for Hillary is some sort of neutral act."

So I guess what you're saying Trump can win without the "Establishment" Republicans. A couple thoughts:- I recall many here after 2008 and 2012 saying "What did you expect with nominating such a " RINO". I assume that means that some Republicans sat out then? That was okay then.- Donald says he'll pull in all of those Reagan Democrats. Maybe it will all be a wash.-if you think it's so important to get "Establishment" Republican votes, then work for them.

PS Names like "pussy", " cuckservative" etc won't win many of those votes. But as you say it's not Quennsbury rules. But I believe you're trying to win some more friends, not make more enemies.

"It'd be best for all to stop the name-calling and vitriol . . . he is non ideological." "Non-ideological" is not a "name"?

"He was never anything, politically." Intended as a compliment?

"he does things. He's a project manager." You mean, like Trump U? Trump Steak? That reality show -- what's it called?

"Instead, listen to the promises he makes throughout this campaign, because those are the things, as project manager, he's planning on delivering." I see. Like trade wars, amnesty, no entitlement reform, nukes for Korea and Japan? (Should we also read the promises on his website, or are those just for show?)

Still, we appreciate the insights. This must be what voters were "thinking."